Serving Cruelty
by Peach Wookiee
Summary: Summer Love, Summer Fears" alternate timeline. Chazz duels Sartorius and does some soul-searching. Peach gratefully acknowledges her fellow author, 15animefreak15, and is honored to be able to use Violet and Rosa for this tale.


Serving Cruelty

_Hello, again, GX fans. Welcome to a one-shot in the "A Guy's Worst Nightmare" timeline. Undoubtedly, some of you have wondered how the Society of Light never occurred in that timeline as it did in the original. Well, in this timeline, Chazz Princeton, later Chazz Rhodes, made a different choice not to follow Sartorius. What made him change his mind? Well, this is that story._

_**Peach doesn't own GX. Together, she and 15animefreak15 own the "A Guy's Worst Nightmare" Yugi-verse. They also own their OCs and Peach uses Rosa Jimenez and Violet Haverbrook with her partner's permission. Peach herself owns Annie Hanson. Peach owns this story.**_

It was a dark night on Academy Island. There was fog and a sense of menace in the air. And in the woods near the school dormitories, a young man in black clothing stood dueling a man in white clothing. In old-style television shows and movies, the man in black is the bad guy, while the man in white is the good guy. But tonight, in the fog-covered forest, the protagonist was in black while the antagonist dressed in white. The young man in black was Chazz Princeton, a second-year student at Duel Academy, currently housed in the Slifer Red dormitories. He had unruly raven hair and stormy gray eyes and was slightly built and right now, he was in a duel for his very soul.

"Chazz, your destiny lies with me…Only the Light I serve can help you become strong. You can become confident on the inside and the outside. The Hanged Man indicates turmoil within you. Only the Light can help you overcome your rival, whom you believe is too strong," Sartorius smirked. He was a man with gray and white striped hair and violet eyes. And at this moment, he also looked as if he had fangs, giving him the look of a vampire and with his glowing violet eyes, he looked positively demonic.

Chazz, for his part, tried to fight. "Give me a break! I mean, who's stronger than me?" And unbidden, the image of his friend and rival, Jaden Kiyo Yuki, a fellow Slifer Red, came into the dark-haired boy's head. Jaden was laughing and happy in Chazz's mind, and though Chazz knew the other boy was his friend, part of Chazz resented the fact that Jaden had kept beating him at dueling. "You're messing with my head!" Chazz cried out.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it, Chazz?" Sartorius murmured. "You know, my friend, if you embrace the Light, that your doubts will become a thing of the past! Embrace the Hanged Man and embrace your destiny to conquer the Hanged Man! Join me, and together we can walk into the Light! We can defeat Jaden and you can defeat your fears! Finish what you have begun, Chazz, and embrace the Light! You cannot turn back now! The Light will make you powerful. I can feel the conflict within you. We each have conflict within us, one side light and the other darkness. Embrace the Light within you! You're so close!" he exclaimed.

"I…I don't know," Chazz said, his soul in conflict. 'What do I want?' he asked in his thoughts and heart. And unbidden, the image of his older brothers, Slade and Jagger, rose in his head. Chazz had been a month old when his mother had succumbed to cancer and on his first 

birthday, his father had committed suicide, leaving the two older Princeton boys to raise their baby brother alone. Perhaps if their father had died of natural causes, Slade and Jagger would've been kinder. Instead, their pain had turned to rage and they had turned that abusive rage on their tiny brother. And so, Chazz had borne the brunt of their anger.

--Flashback, many years ago—"You're not good enough, you little worm!" Slade Princeton shouted as he threw the B+ essay back at ten-year-old Chazz.

"Big brother, I did my best and I had the third-best grade in the class!" Chazz pleaded.

"You're a Princeton, and Princetons aren't allowed to make mistakes. You have to get A's," Jagger snarled, slapping the little boy. Chazz, as he'd done since he was small, bowed his head against the blow. –End Flashback—

'I want to be the best,' sixteen-year-old Chazz thought again. And then he remembered his losses against Jaden after he'd dueled his way to nearly the top of Duel Academy's rankings. He hadn't dared challenge Zane Truesdale, the Kaiser of Duel Academy, because he wasn't strong enough. But he thought he'd found easy pickings in Jaden Yuki. Beating Dr. Crowler had been a fluke, Chazz had reasoned, so the Slifer Slacker should be easy to beat. However, Jaden had trounced him, the Obelisk Blue, soundly and then Chazz had subsequently been beaten by Bastion Misawa and the blue-clad Obelisk had run from Duel Academy that night, fearing what his brothers would do to him when they found out. He left for North Academy early the next morning on his personal yacht.

'I left to get away from them because I didn't want to be under their domination,' he thought. 'I wanted to win and do well on my own terms, not because of what Slade and Jagger wanted me to do. I struggled out on the tundra and on the ice. And I got into North Academy on my own. And then I became the best in the school on my own, beating 50 guys in a row to do it! And then…the School Duel…' he remembered, bowing his head.

--Flashback, just before the School Duel started—"You'd better win, Chazz! You are the key to us controlling the world," Slade said clearly. "I want to be President of the United States someday, and Jagger will control the financial markets. You are to control the world of dueling. If you fail, you're not worthy to be a Princeton. You never were…"

"If you were, you would've made Dad love you. But instead, he killed himself because you made him do it. It's your fault he's dead," Jagger added, "and you know it…"

"I didn't…" Chazz started to say, and then felt a cold slap to his cheek.

"You did, and you're lucky we even call you our brother," Jagger said, his flinty eyes flashing. "So don't contradict us, Chazz. If you fail today, we have no little brother. You're nothing to us. So win or prepare for hell."

Slade handed the boy a powerful dueling deck, full of the best cards money could buy. And then, when they'd left, Chazz had stared at himself in the mirror of the boys' bathroom. 

"I…have to win…I am…Chazz Princeton and I have to win," he muttered to himself, fighting tears. "I can't fail again…"

Little did he know that someone had heard him and thought about not dueling him because of it. Jaden Yuki had dueled him and won, but not crowed about it. "See, Chazz? You can duel and still have fun!" Jaden said happily. "That's game, and I think you had fun, too…"

Chazz might've answered, but just then, Slade grabbed him by the collar. "YOU LITTLE LOSER! We gave you the best cards, and you still can't win! You're pathetic! You little failure!"

"Let him go!" Slade turned when Jaden said that. "He's your brother and he did his best."

"He's no brother of ours!" Jagger countered. "He's not worthy of the Princeton name."

"Just because he lost some duels? You act like Chazz is a disgrace, but the truth is you two are the disgrace here! Chazz wouldn't dump you because you lost a stock deal or lost an election," Jaden pointed out, genuinely angry at the two young men, one of whom had just unceremoniously thrown his brother on the dueling arena floor. "You two are so mean to him, and all he's ever wanted is to be like you! You're the people he's supposed to look up to and you treat him terribly! You guys…are jerks! But if you're disowning him, then I know a bunch of people who won't!"

And from the stands, six students came running down. The first two were a Slifer Red boy with aqua-blue hair named Syrus Truesdale and an Obelisk Blue girl with dark brown hair and big blue eyes named Annie Hanson. They were followed by Violet Haverbrook, another Obelisk girl with purple hair and big green eyes and Ra Yellow Bastion Misawa, a young man with gray eyes and gray-black hair. And then came Chumley Huffington, a heavyset Slifer boy who bore more than a passing resemblance to a koala bear and Alexis Rhodes, an Obelisk Blue girl with blonde hair and brown eyes that Chazz admittedly had a crush on. They each moved to surround Chazz, who by this time was wearing a beat-up black jacket and pants.

"You guys are so not 'licious," Chumley said, eyes determined.

"Yeah. You two are total bozos," Alexis added, her brown eyes flashing. She was angry, Chazz noticed, at his brothers.

"I know what having a brother that loves you is like, and you dorks sure as sugar aren't like Bobby!" Violet growled. "I'd like to give you jerks an atomic wedgie!"

"I find it fair to warn you that should you lay another hand on him, I am versed in Krav Maga self-defense techniques," Bastion asserted. Annie and Syrus for their part said nothing, but managed expressions that were as fierce as they could make them. Chazz had stood up by this time, and he saw each of their expressions. All six of them, Jaden included, would not let Slade and Jagger harm him, Chazz, if they could prevent it. Wisely, Slade and Jagger backed down, 

and left Academy Island without any further trouble. And Chazz joined the Slifer dorms that evening, returning to the academy on his own terms. –End Flashback—

Now, Chazz looked at Sartorius, his eyes wide. 'What am I doing?' the boy thought.

'You can get what you want if you join him,' a voice in his head whispered. 'You can become a winner if you take your place as a servant of Sartorius and the Light. You can serve a new master and get what you desire…'

Chazz considered that. 'Serve a new master? But why? Will Sartorius give me a new family that actually likes me for me? Or will it simply be a repeat of what I dealt with when I was with my brothers?'

'It won't be,' that other voice promised. 'You will rule at Sartorius's side when the Light envelops the world…'

And then it hit Chazz like a ton of bricks. 'The Light will be like Slade and Jagger. It and Sartorius want me to help rule the world. All I want to do is to beat Jaden in a duel. And it's not about humiliating him anymore. He's my friend…everybody who stood in front of me to keep me safe from Slade and Jagger…they're my friends. They care about me even if I'm a jerk sometimes. They're there for me and that's not going to change. My real friends…my real family…they're the ones who love me even when I'm a jerk. And right now, I'm not going to abandon them by joining this…cult!'

The other voice in him whispered desperately, 'You'll never achieve true greatness unless you join the Light! You'll never belong to anyone!'

And Sartorius called to him, "You're so close! Embrace what I will give you!"

In another reality, Chazz might've asked for Sartorius to help him. He might've cried out for help, little knowing what it truly would cost him. But this was not that reality. One word came to Chazz… "No."

The man in white stood stunned for a moment. "What…what did you say?"

"I said no, freak show!" the boy in black said with more force now. "I don't need your 'help.' I'm going to beat Jaden on my own terms, you hear me? I won't be a slave to you or to my brothers. What would you expect me to give up? My mind? My soul?! I won't do that anymore! The Chazz is his own man!" His dark gray eyes flashed like storm clouds and he continued, "I'm not going to be a stooge to anybody ever again! I have friends who are like my family should be! And I'm not going to turn my back on them! So thanks, but no thanks!" His life points dropped to zero, but Charles Xavier Princeton did not collapse to his knees.

At his side, three small creatures appeared at his side. "Boss, are you okay?" Ojama Yellow, a little creature with crablike eyestalks asked gently. He and his brothers, Ojama Green and Ojama Black, moved close to him.

Chazz nodded. "Yeah. I'm all right…twerp," he said softly. "Later, freak show," he called over his shoulder to Sartorius as he headed toward the edge of the woods. He thought he would have a long walk alone ahead of him as he returned to the Slifer dorms, but then he got a surprise. His friends were waiting for him.

"Chazz, you stood up to him!" Alexis Rhodes said, impressed. "You told him no!"

"Nice job, Private Chazz! The Sarge'll be thrilled when he hears you stopped the enemy, and that creep sounded like the enemy," Tyranno Hassleberry, just known by his surname, praised. He was a Ra Yellow student with black dreadlocks and white bangs. On the top of his head, he wore a yellow bandana. That, combined with the white bangs, gave the muscular Texas boy in the cut-off Ra blazer the appearance of wearing a dinosaur hat on his head. "The Sarge" was Jaden who had just run off.

"Sí, Senor Chazz, you did muy bien," Rosa Jimenez, a native Spaniard Obelisk girl with chocolate-brown eyes and ruddy brown hair that framed her heart-shaped face. "You showed courage…"

"That guy was so creepy. He scared the sugar out of me!" Violet admitted. "But you didn't let him win, Chazz! That is so great!"

"Yes, Chazz, you didn't give into fear or anger. Who knows what would've happened had you given in," Bastion stated. "Good job."

"Jaden will be glad you didn't let Sartorius win, Chazz. And we're all here for you," Syrus added, smiling a little.

And then Chazz came to Annie. When he had lost to Bastion back in their first year, Annie had come to Chazz, offering to help him however she could. But instead, he had angrily slapped her offered hand away and run away. But now…

"Annie? I'm sorry for being mean," he apologized. "You just wanted to help. And you did later, even though I'd been mean. Sorry…"

The dark-haired, blue-eyed girl smiled. "Chazz…it's okay. I know why you did it and…" Impulsively, she threw her arms around him in a hug, happy and crying. The raven-haired boy was caught off guard, but he instinctively returned the hug.

"GROUP HUG ON CHAZZ!" Violet shouted. And the teens all hugged the youngest Princeton boy. Together, they headed back to the Slifer dorm. Even though one of their number was missing at the moment, the group could celebrate this, Chazz's victory against Sartorius, and more importantly his insecurity. He had made a choice to not continue serving cruelty.

**THE END**

_I hope that you enjoyed this one-shot. As you can see, in this version of the Yugi-verse, Chazz really thought about what joining Sartorius meant. And that simple action meant that the Society of Light never got control of Academy Island. As always, I appreciate your reading and reviewing. Thank you!_


End file.
